Shadows will ride next week

The Shadow ministers for the Environment and for Transport will join next week's Parliamentary Bike Ride. (PLUS: the Minister for Transport reveals details on a pro-bike website to be launched by the government)

Despite the distraction of the Tory leadership contest, two senior shadow ministers

are intending to join the Parliamentary Bike Ride to the Palace of Westminster next

Tuesday morning.

Archie Norman, shadow secretary of state for Environment, Transport and the Regions

will ride alongside Bernard Jenkin, shadow minister for transport.

(Speculation that Michael Portillo will join the ride on a bike without a saddle cannot be confirmed.)

Before the ride, new Minister for Transport John Spellar MP is expected to outline what

the government intends to do to encourage more cycling. All-Party Parliamentary

Cycling Group (APPCG) chair Jane Griffiths MP will call on Spellar to "do more to

ensure that the many people who cycle, and those who wish to, can do so safely."

In the meeting with bike industry execs earlier this week, Spellar listened carefully, and revealed that the government was currently compiling a website which would link up many of the disparate sources of information available for new cyclists. This website will be launched in the Autumn. Maps of all the UK's cycle routes are being sought for adding to one digitised 'super map'.